Last October, we learned that Henry Cavill is leaving The Witcher after season 3, passing the Geralt of Rivia mantle to The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth.
Cavill has yet to elaborate on his reasons for leaving the Netflix series, though we've heard various explanations, including claims he'd grown disillusioned with the creative direction The Witcher was heading in by veering too far from Andrzej Sapkowski's novels (he also anticipated returning as Superman following Black Adam).
During a recent interview with Yahoo News, executive producers Steve Gaub and Tomek Baginski addressed the actor's departure, promising Cavill will go out on a high.
"It's a very strong season for Henry, a great final run for him as Geralt," Gaub says. "I think the most important thing for us was to make sure he was very proud of those last [scenes], invariably those last moments are the ones you leave an audience with, and those last couple episodes are very strong episodes for him."
"I think he left with his head held high and passing the reins as many franchises end up doing, passing a title character from one actor to another, and we're going to be in great hands with Liam. We're looking forward to the new explorations of Geralt with a new person behind it, a new actor and a new face."
Baginski would elaborate on the latter point by strongly hinting that, in place of a traditional recasting, there will be a storyline reason for Geralt's change in appearance.
"We have a very, very good plan to introduce our new Geralt and our new vision for Geralt with Liam. Not going deeply into those ideas because this will be a huge spoiler, [but] it's also very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five."
"It's very lore accurate," he continues. "It's very close to what was set out in the books and I think this change will be quite flawless. But at the same time it will be a new Geralt, it will be a new face for this character and I think it will also be very, very exciting to see."
Does this mean Hemsworth will actually debut during season 3's closing moments? It certainly sounds possible, and we'd assume Baginski is referring to either Baptism of Fire or The Lady of the Lake, though nothing from those immediately springs to mind when it comes to how Geralt could get a new face.
You'd best believe we're going to be combing through both books for clues now, though! The first half of The Witcher season 3 premieres on June 29.